Bollywood on Bourke Street

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Sandy sounds: Australian extras get to show their form in Salaam Namaste.

The first Indian movie filmed entirely in Australia is
taking shape in Melbourne and regional Victoria.

The news has spread like wildfire, and by midnight there are
several hundred onlookers lining the street, craning their necks
for a view of their idols.

Old ladies, young children, teenagers and working men, many
dressed in salwar kameez or turbans, pass around samosas, pakoras
and other snacks. Across the road, the director has a long
conversation in Hindi with his two star actors, while the crew
busies itself setting up lights and camera angles for the next
scene.

The meeting between the director and cast breaks up, and
everyone takes their positions.

"Sound!" yells director Siddharth Anand as he crouches over a
monitor, and the syncopated rhythm of a Hindi-English pop song,
What's Going On blares from the temporary speakers.

The camera rolls for a few seconds before he yells, "Cut!".

It's early on another long night of filming of Salaam
Namaste, the latest blockbuster by India's largest production
company, Yash Raj Films. But this is downtown Melbourne, not
Mumbai.

Salaam Namaste is a $2.5 million production the Bracks
Government is hoping will make Melbourne an outpost of India's
Bollywood, one of the world's largest film-making centres.

Salaam Namaste is the first Indian film to be fully
shot in Australia, using various locations in Melbourne and
regional Victoria, including the Great Ocean Road. Starring India's
equivalents of Julia Roberts (Preity Zinta) and Brad Pitt (Saif Ali
Khan), it is expected to reach a global audience of about 300
million when it's released on the big screen in August.

Shooting began at the start of April, and will continue until
next month. "It's about two Indians who have left their houses to
make a life on their own, and how they meet and how they tackle
their own relationships and problems and overcome them themselves
without their families," says 26-year-old Anand, who also wrote the
script for his debut feature as director.

"It's a slice of that couple's life in that one year they spend
together."

Not that the plot is that important in a Bollywood film, which
aspires to do little more than provide a few hours of escapism for
India's teeming masses with comedy, romance and a sprinkling of
over-the-top musical numbers.

Anand had been preparing to film Salaam Namaste in San
Francisco when he visited Melbourne last year on the recommendation
of a friend who had been one of eight up-and-coming directors
invited to the Victorian capital for a Bollywood festival.

Anand was blown away by the city's architecture, variety of
settings and clear light for filming.

"They wanted a place that was very multicultural and
cosmopolitan," says Mitu Bhowmick Lange, an expatriate Indian who
is the film's line producer."But they also wanted a quaintness and
charm to it (just like) Melbourne."

Film Victoria provided financial incentives through its regional
film assistance fund, along with practical help to scout locations
and assemble a production crew.

Film Victoria's chief executive, Sandra Sdraulig, says the
volume of films made in Bollywood presents an opportunity too good
to pass up. "One of the reasons why Indian crews are sometimes
attracted to other locations is because they have an incredibly
healthy production industry where they're often making up to 1000
films a year," she says.

"No doubt Salaam Namaste will be a catalyst for Indian
producers to consider Victoria when filming in the future, because
word of mouth is critical."

About 3.2 billion people see Bollywood films each year, compared
with 2.6 billion who watch Hollywood productions.

When this writer visited the set on a balmy autumn night in the
Bourke Street Mall, the crew was filming the movie's final song
sequence. After editing, the scene will show Zinta and Khan in
front of various Melbourne landmarks, including Federation Square
and the grand General Post Office building.

Salaam Namaste will contain five songs, including the
title sequence. The biggest scene so far involved 60 dancers on Rye
beach, on the Mornington Peninsula.

After working together since the start of March, the 70-strong
crew - split 60 per cent Indian, 40 per cent local - has developed
a quiet rapport. The Australians have learnt a few words of Hindi,
while the Indians mock their broad ocker accents.

"The working style is very different but we're adjusting to each
other," Anand says. "In India you're spontaneous, you're ready for
anything. We're used to chaos, but the Australian crew is coping
with us."

It will be another long night for the Salaam Namaste
crew, with filming expected to finish not long before dawn.

Well after midnight, the crowd of hundreds of expatriates
watching from the other side of the tram tracks show no signs of
leaving.

"Everywhere we go, it starts with one, and soon grows to 10,"
says Lange.

"Tonight we parked in front of a 7-Eleven and the Indian guy
inside got on the phone straight away, and that's how they all get
here. "Will they ever go home?"